Prince of Wales Public School won ‘green’ for being green!

Congratulations to Prince of Wales Public School, one of 20 schools in Ontario to win $1,000 to put towards school-based projects. Students and staff prevented roughly 50 tonnes of waste from going to landfills. That is the equivalent of seven municipal garbage trucks filled with waste!

During the week of October 18, 2010, Reduction Week in Canada, over 50,000 Ontario students participated in the Waste Free Lunch Challenge. Nearly 700 schools from 57 school boards across the province participated.

Waste Free Lunch Challenge is a school program developed by theRecycling Council of Ontario in partnership with Metro grocery chain. The goal of the program is to help schools decrease the amount of garbage they produce and to educate students, staff and parents about waste reduction. http://www.wastefreelunch.com/[1]

School lunches are a major source of waste in Ontario, with the average student’s lunch generating a total of 30 kilograms of waste per school year, or an average of 8,500 kilograms (18,700 lbs) of waste per school, per year.

In Ontario, 20 classrooms were recognized as the most successful in reducing the amount of waste generated. Each received $1,000 prizes donated by Metro, for use in school-based environmental projects. The Waste Free Lunch Challenge follows Metro’s Green Apple School Program as an extension of its existing environmental initiatives. By participating in the program, Metro is furthering its commitment to encouraging environmental stewardship in Ontario students.